Family Diomedeide
ALBATROSSES.
The Albatrosses, numbering eight or ten species, are confined chiefly to the seas of the southern hemisphere. They are eminently pelagic birds, possessed of untiring powers of flight. Four species visit our Pacific coast, but on the Atlantic coast of North America Albatrosses are almost unknown, and there are but few records of their occurrence. The WANDERING ALBATROSS (80.1. Diomedea exulans), the largest of all sea birds, with an expanse of wing which measures from twelve to fourteen feet, inhabits antarctic seas, but sometimes wanders northward, and is said to have been seen in Tampa Bay, Florida.
The YELLOW-NOSED ALBATROSS (83. Thalassogeron culminatus) is also a southern species which is said to have been taken once in Quebec (Chamberlain, Nuttall's Manual, 2d ed., ii, p. 277). FAMILY PROCELLARIIDE.
SHEARWATERS AND PETRELS.
The seventy known species of Petrels are distributed over the seas of the world. Some thirty species have been found in North America, of which seven occur regularly on our Atlantic coast. Like their large relatives, the Albatrosses, they are strictly pelagic, and visit the land only to nest. The strong, swift flight of Shearwaters, and the graceful movements of the smaller "Mother Carey's Chickens," are familiar sights to those who go "down to the sea in ships."
SHEARWATERS AND PETRELS.
I. Wing over 10.50.
A. Under parts dusky B. Under parts white. a. Bill under 1.50 b. Bill over 1.50.
KEY TO THE SPECIES. 61. Under tail-coverts white. 62. Under tail-coverts grayish brown II. Wing under 10.50.
A. Wing over 7.25. a. Depth of bill at base over 50. b. Depth of bill at base under 50. 61. Upper parts bluish gray 62. Upper parts sooty black B. Wing under 7.25. 94. SOOTY SHEARWATER. 98. BLACK-CAPPED PETREL. 88. CORY'S SHEARWATER. 89. GREATER SHEARWATER. 86. FULMAR. 86a. LESSER FULMAR. a. Upper tail-coverts more or less white. a¹. Tail forked b. Tail square. 99. SCALED PETREL. 92. AUDUBON'S SHEARWATER. 106. LEACH'S PETREL. 62. Webs of feet marked with yellow; upper tail-coverts not tipped with black 63. Webs of feet without yellow; tail-coverts tipped with black. b. Upper tail-coverts grayish or brownish. 61. Entire under parts brownish b². Breast grayish 63. Entire under parts white 109. WILSON'S PETREL. 104. STORMY PETREL. 101. BULWER'S PETREL. 110. WHITE-BELLIED PETREL. 111. WHITE-FACED PETREL. 86. Fulmarus glacialis (Linn.). FULMAR; NODDY (see Fig. 9, b). Light phase. Head, neck, and under parts white or whitish; back, wings , and tail slaty gray. Dark phase. - Entire plumage nearly uniform dark, slaty gray. L., 19.00; W., 13.04; B., 1.50; depth of B. at base, 75 (Ridgw.) .